이 기사는 2021년 12월 06일 07시37분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

SK Ecoplant, part of South Korea’s SK Group, has announced a new executive promotion as it pushes to go public by 2023.

Nam Gi-cheol was promoted to an executive role Thursday as part of the company’s annual personnel reshuffle. An experienced finance expert, Nam will lead an effort to take SK Ecoplant public at the newly-created Corporate Strategy Center, a team created to drive the company’s sustainable growth and initial public offering.

In May, then the company’s chief executive Ahn Jae-hyun announced a plan for the IPO in the next two years, saying that SK Ecoplant “will achieve continued growth and increase shareholder value by going public and will grow to become Asia's leading environmental company by 2023”.

SK Ecoplant, formerly SK Engineering & Construction, has focused on investing in new businesses over the past years in line with its IPO ambitions. It completed acquisitions of several waste management companies including EMC Holdings, and also invested $255 million in US-based Bloom Energy as recently as in October as part of efforts to grow its fuel cells business.

Nam’s role will focus on communicating with investment bankers as the company is aiming for a valuation of as much as 10 trillion won ($8.5 billion), or around 12 times expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 850 billion won for 2023.

Using an EBITDA multiple to estimate an enterprise value is not conventional in IPOs for domestic construction companies. SK Ecoplant, which is in the process of shifting its business focus to the environmental area, will likely highlight the growth potential of its new businesses to increase the company’s valuation.

SK Ecoplant’s Corporate Strategy Center will be headed by Cho Seong-ok. Before the new role, he oversaw investments related to digital transformation at SK Inc, the holding company of SK Group. Cho, born in 1975, earned a master’s degree from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. (Reporting by Jeong-wan Lee)